Winfield Raises Ambulance Fees For Non-residents

The Winfield Fire Protection District has become the latest Du Page County agency to boost rates for non-residents who need ambulance service.

Fire districts and municipal fire departments cannot collect property taxes from non-residents, so most now charge user fees to people who get sick or injured outside of their hometowns.

Residents within the Winfield Fire District, which includes Winfield and surrounding unincorporated areas, pay taxes for ambulance and paramedic service and are not billed when they need the services. However, the fire district trustees voted this week to increase charges for non-residents, who now pay a flat rate of $200 for transportation to a hospital.

Beginning Dec. 1, the district will have authority to add charges for specific services to that base rate. Fees will include $20 for splinting, $25 for bandaging, $50 for use of an extrication device, $100 for resuscitation and $500 for delivering a baby.

The fire district will also charge $5 per mile for transportation. Most Du Page County departments waive fees if patients refuse to go to a hospital. Winfield, though, will charge $150 if a patient is treated but doesn`t need transportation.

Fire departments, faced with increasing costs of providing ambulances and paramedics, have taken different approaches to recover some of those costs.

The bottom line, though, is that the free ambulance ride is becoming a thing of the past in Du Page County.

Effective Sept. 1, the Itasca Fire Protection District began charging non-residents flat rates of $150 for basic life support service and $200 for advanced life support. Advanced care can include cardiac monitoring and administering of medications.

Itasca`s fees apply primarily to victims of traffic accidents. Fire Chief Vince Caravello said the district won`t charge non-residents, for example, who get sick or injured at the home of an Itasca resident.

Caravello said the same holds true for ambulance calls to Itasca`s factories and hotels. Businesses and hotels pay taxes to the district, he said, so their employees and guests will be exempt from the fees.

The Bloomingdale Fire District, like Itasca and Winfield, has resisted financial pressures to charge residents for emergency care. Bloomingdale, however, began assessing a $250 flat rate to non-residents Oct. 1.

Many departments charge residents user fees, but at a reduced rate.

Lombard, for example, bills residents $90 for basic care and $120 for advanced life support. Outsiders pay double those amounts.

In Naperville, city residents pay $100 and non-residents $200. Voters in unincorporated areas near Naperville, in effect, made themselves residents this month by approving a ballot measure that will increase the property taxes they pay to Naperville Fire Protection District for ambulance service.

Oak Brook Fire Chief Robert Nielsen said the village board there has long adhered to a philosophy of charging user fees. Oak Brook residents pay no property taxes, but, like nonresidents, are charged $300 per ambulance run.

Nielsen said Oak Brook began billing at a rate of $65 in 1980. One of the first communities to do so, the village encountered some opposition to the idea.

Now it seems clear Oak Brook was simply ahead of its time.

Annual revenue from ambulance charges can be substantial, for example, about $300,000 in Naperville.

Nielsen said, though, fees cover only a fraction of what it costs to provide emergency care.

Oak Brook collects on about 60 percent of its ambulance bills. Even if the village were able to collect 100 percent, Nielsen said, the fire department would have to charge about $1,000 per call to make the service pay for itself.

Personnel and training expenses make up the bulk of operational costs, according to Nielsen.

Most Du Page County departments employ their own paramedics, but Elmhurst, like Winfield, contracts with a private ambulance firm.

Elmhurst pays Metro Paramedic Services $100,000 per year, then allows the company to keep the money it bills patients. Metro`s fees begin at $230 for residents and $345 for non-residents, then follow a service schedule similar to Winfield`s.

Elmhurst Fire Chief John Fennell said a survey conducted about six months ago indicated the city would have to raise taxes by $840,000 per year to provide its own ambulance service if no user fees were charged.